by Sophia Lynn
As far as Elise could tell, putting out feelers for anything that seemed the least wrong or shady, she wasn't. Everything was normal. She was simply getting an examination at a place that was nicer than any hospital she had ever been in before.
The doctor said that she should receive her results very soon and that she was free to leave. Elise was crossing the lobby when she saw the man from before. He greeted her with a pleasant smile and handed her a black envelope that was identical to the one currently resting in her purse. She hadn't trusted the hotel well enough to leave it there.
"Well, what now?" she asked, nervousness lending a hard edge to her voice. She shoved the envelope into her purse. It was dangerous carrying that much money on her person, but she was painfully aware that she did not have any choice.
"Well, you are free to go if you wish, or you can return to the hotel room and wait for my employer. If your results are to his liking, he will come and speak to you. If they are not, then you will simply enjoy another night at the hotel free of charge."
"Is it really that easy?" she asked, aware of a tremulous note in her voice. She’d had dinner, a decent night of sleep, and an enormous breakfast that morning, but she knew that she was still running ragged from what had happened over the past week.
The smile he gave her was genuine.
"Some things really are. It is entirely up to you."
He turned away from her and slipped into the crowd. After a moment, he was gone, and she was left looking after him.
"The choice is mine," she said, and she liked the way that sounded.
The right choice was to get out of town, to find a way to turn the dirham in her bag into a ticket back to the United States or to some place even more distant. However...
There was a part of her that wanted to find out what came next. Did some germaphobe want her to work for him? Why did she need such a thorough exam held at such an expensive place? What was really going on?
Elise realized that she was never going to find out the answers to the questions if she left, and in the end, that was what decided it for her. Taking a deep breath, she squared her shoulders and strode towards the hotel.
Somehow, in some strange and fractured way, it felt as if her destiny was waiting. A flash of dark eyes and dark hair appeared in her mind again, and then was gone, and when she walked forward, Elise was comforted.
***
In a hotel room at the Attia Hotel and Suites, Nadim's hand tightened on his phone. He was surprised that he hadn't crushed it.
"You're sure?" he said, his voice low and nearly threatening. "You are absolutely sure?"
The doctor's voice on the other end of the line was smooth and kind. He had liked her from the moment he met her, and he knew now that he was right to trust his instincts.
"Yes, sheikh," she said. "I am completely sure. I am looking up her test results here. She is in perfect health, and there should be no problems ahead."
There had been no problems with Malaya, and there were no problems with him either, but years of disappointment had made him wary of hope. Still, however, a small green sprout of hope pushed its way out of a crack in his heart, and it was both painful and one of the best things that he had ever felt.
"Good," he said, and then he hung up. There it was. She had passed the most difficult barrier. What came next would be solely on him. He was the one who would have to tell her why this was important, why she should do this.
He took a deep breath, and then another as his breathing evened. He was no salesman, but his father had once told him that if he truly believed in something, he wouldn't have to be. He would speak about it with such love and passion that others would come running.
He hoped, as he walked into the hall, that it was true.
***
Elise was only half-way prepared for the light knock on the door. She sprang up from the couch close to the window, where she had restlessly been reading a novel that someone had left in the lobby. She could see why it had been abandoned; it was atrociously bad, and it had done nothing to keep her distracted from the upcoming visit with her benefactor.
Her mind kept coming up with darker and darker instances of who might want her to have a full medical examination before she met with him, and by the time the knock came and she threw the book to one side, she was shivering a little.
Elise had never been someone who shied away from a little bit of fear, so when she threw the door open, she was greeted by a man with his fist raised to knock again, a look of surprise on his face.
"Nadim," she yelped, and then without thinking of it, her hand lashed out, grabbed the lapel of his shirt, and dragged him into the hotel room.
He closed the door behind her, and then, following her momentum, he caught her up in his arms for a deep kiss. It was at once a surprise and it wasn't. On one hand, she hadn't seen it coming, but on the other, once she realized that it was Nadim, it seemed inevitable. Of course this was Nadim, and of course she would kiss him.
All that mattered was the strength of his arms around her, the taste of his lips, the way she could almost feel a deep growl reverberating through her body. This was Nadim, and the only right thing for her in the world was to be kissing him.
Then common sense inserted itself, and she pulled away with a gasp, her eyes wild.
“What are you doing here?” she sputtered. “What are you doing getting me medical examinations and hotel rooms, and food, and...”
He laughed a little, shaking his head. He had a very nice laugh, she noted, and a part of her wanted nothing more than to live in that laugh, to find a place in time and space where that were possible. Then she made herself look at the thick gold ring on his hand and pulled back. Nothing had changed, and the truth was that things were stranger than ever.
“I think that you owe me an explanation,” she said, and he nodded with a brief sigh.
“I cannot tell you how much I would rather be kissing you,” he said, “but you are not wrong. Come here.”
He led her to the small sunny bay window that served as a breakfast nook and took a seat across from her. Somehow, despite it being a room that had been rented in her name, Elise realized that she was the one that felt like a supplicant. She was the one who was biting her lip with nervousness and feeling as if she was sitting down to a dinner with a lion.
“Do you know my name yet?”
She blinked, because whatever it was that she had thought he was going to say, it was not that.
“It's...it's Nadim, isn't it?” she asked hesitantly.
The smile he gave her was rueful.
“That's partially right. My full name is Sheikh Nadim ibn Fasad Al Attia.”
“Sheikh...” Elise whispered, her voice trailing off. She felt as if an enormous hole had opened up in her stomach. “Sheikh?”
“I am afraid so. My family has stood at the head of Hadara for the last three hundred years, and I am the latest of that line.”
“All right...”
She supposed she could see it. The person who had been paying her for her time, for the hotel, and for the doctor would have had to be rich, and the sheikh of Hadara was meant to be fabulously wealthy, amazingly handsome, and extremely private about his affairs.
“I am not sure how I am meant to explain all of this to you...” he said, and she smiled a little.
“Begin at the beginning, and go on until you get to the end,” she suggested. “I understand that helps.”
“Very well, but I need you to understand that what is discussed here will never be told to a single other soul. There are only a handful of people who know that this meeting is taking place at all, and you are one of the only two who are not in my employ.”
She had resolved not to doubt him or question him until the end, but that startled her enough that she blinked.
“Who is the other?”
“My wife,” he said shortly, and she felt that same yawning pit again.
“Oh...”
“The matte
r as it stands is that I need a child,” he said. There was the very faintest tremor in his voice, and she sensed that this was perhaps an issue that he had been over many times before, one that stung and ached.
“A child...”
“Yes. An heir, a son for the country. This is part of the duties of the sheikh, and it is one that I have not yet fulfilled. There is no medical issue. My wife is capable, and I am capable, but yet...despite being married for years, there is simply nothing.”
Elise thought of the medical examination, and her eyes widened. Her hand went up to cover her mouth, and he nodded.
“Yes. At this point, a child that at least carries my blood would be better than none at all. This is why I have come to you. My wife...my wife has given her permission for me to take matters into my own hands, and this is the solution that I have decided is best.”
“But...but why me?” The words that came out of her mouth were almost strangled. She wondered if she had ever felt more herself, a poor girl from the middle of nowhere who had a voice that some said was decent. She was in the presence of the sheikh of Hadara, and right now, she had no idea why.
There was a slight smile on Nadim's face, and for a moment, she felt very much like a mouse who was being toyed with by a cat. There were forces at play here that she did not strictly understand, and it felt as if she were traveling through murky waters. Nothing was going to be explained to her, and she felt alternately afraid and angry about that.
Before she could voice that, he shrugged.
“There are many reasons why I had my secret service find you. We have verified that you are currently in fine shape and could bear a child easily...”
“But it's not like you knew that before you found me,” she pointed out, lifting her chin up. “I don't understand why you wanted me.”
Nadim let out a long breath, and in that moment, a flash of intuition told her that there was going to be something strange about what he said next. Perhaps it wouldn't be a lie, but it wouldn't quite be the truth, either.
“My parents arranged my marriage,” he said, speaking calmly and practically. “They determined who my wife was going to be from the time that I was very young. On paper, my wife is meant to be perfect for me. She is well-bred, beautiful, intelligent, rich, and charming.”
Though Elise knew that he was married, she felt a pang at hearing him describe his wife like that. That was a long list that she couldn't hope to compare with, and she was angry at herself for even thinking that she had to. She had known that he was a married man from the first time she had met him. What had changed now?”
“And yet, she was all of those things, and we still do not have a child. There is nothing that we can do to explain it, no doctor who understands what is going on, no one we can speak to about this issue.”
“And so you are going to...what, use me as a surrogate?”
There was a slight sparkle in his eye that made something in her respond, even if she did not wish to. There was something about this man that pulled her in, and she couldn't explain it at all.
“Well, if doing everything the way that tradition tells me I should do it didn't work...”
“You're going to try doing the opposite, which is knocking up the bar singer?”
Elise tried to keep her voice tough and hard. She should have been insulted by his offer, but there was something beating hard in her heart. It was like there was a bird fluttering its wings inside her ribs, making her shudder and reach for him. She could feel a certain uneasiness about this offer, but she did not know where it was coming from. She did not know why there was such a strong voice in her head telling her to take it, to take what he was offering right away.
He laughed a little at her crude words.
“Something like that. We will work on impregnating you. For every month you are willing to work on it with me, you will be given a sum of fifty thousand dollars.”
He ignored Elise's gasp, but she couldn't stop thinking of that number. It was so much. She could live for more than two years on that.
“In the event that you fall pregnant, you will be given eighty thousand dollars, and when you give birth, you will be given a million dollars.”
“You're throwing around those words as if they don't represent real money...”
He grinned at her, and there was something wolfish about it.
“Believe me when I say that it is very real, songbird, just like the money you are holding now. It is real, it can be yours. Of course, it will not come without a cost. You'll need to be careful and to obey all of the doctor's orders while we are trying to conceive, and of course you will be extraordinarily careful while you are pregnant.”
He paused. There was a faint hunger to him that she didn't quite understand how to read. It made her both want to run away...and to run towards him at full speed.
“And of course, you will need to submit to the process of becoming pregnant.”
She found herself staring into his eyes, and without thinking of what she was doing, she licked her lips. She saw his dark gaze flicker to her pink tongue, and god, why couldn't she get her mind off of what it might be like to taste him again?
“I take it that you are not talking about test tubes and turkey basters...”
“I was planning on doing it the old-fashioned way, yes,” he said blandly. It was almost difficult to believe that he was talking about doing something so intimate with her, putting their hands on each other, kissing, touching, more than that...
There was a gleam in his eyes, and suddenly, Elise wondered if he was laughing at her. He was the rich sheikh, and she was just a poor girl dazzled by the money he had. Well, she had some power here too, and she told herself to remember that. He was the one who had come looking for her. He was the one who had come to her with an offer.
“Well, how will I know that you are any good at that?” she asked, lifting her chin proudly.
It was a bit of a fool's gambit. Men always hated being prodded about their performance, and his kisses had, without fail, left her gasping and weak in the knees.
His fine dark eyebrows drew together, and for a moment, Elise wondered if she had set off his temper. Then he stepped forward, catching her up in his arms. He was so large and so fast that he could move her easily, and she yelped as he carried her back to the bed.
Elise thought vaguely that she should crying out for help, or perhaps calling him every dirty name in the book, but instead, she clung to him. She might have been the one surprised, but it was just as easy to say that he was putting her right where she wanted to be.
He pinned her to the mattress, and for a moment, Nadim was just a dark shape over her, his weight resting against hers. She could feel how powerful he was, how heat radiated off of him, and then he bent his lips to hers.
There was no patience and no kindness in this kiss. This was simple, raw sensuality as he coaxed her tongue against his, as he tasted her and aroused her all at once. Somehow, his thigh had wedged between hers, pressing hard and making her want to press up against him. She realized with a blazing blush that she was working herself hot against him, but it mattered so much less than his mouth on hers, his hand traveling from her shoulder, down her ribs and to her rounded hip. She could feel his arousal as well, pressed against the soft flesh of her belly. Even from her position, even with layers of clothes between them, she could feel the size and girth of him, and some part of her shivered at the idea of him entering her, opening her...
Unconsciously, her arms had wrapped around him, clinging and almost desperate. She needed Nadim in a way that she couldn't quite understand, couldn't force herself to grasp. It was more than just the beating of her heart or the craving deep inside her. It was something deep and profound, and now that she had him, she wasn't sure that she could ever, ever let him go.
She moaned softly as he ground his thigh between her legs, and when his hand closed around her round, heavy breast, she thought her clothes would vaporize from the heat between them.
Then he pulled away, leaving her feeling incredibly cold and somehow raw.
He stood back from the bed, and blinking, she realized exactly how she looked, rumpled on the hotel bed with her clothes in disarray. She blinked against a light that suddenly felt too bright, and her fingers drifted up to her lips, which felt far too red and swollen.
“Well?” he asked, and she had to give herself at least some credit. His voice was slightly hoarse, and though it was level, she wondered if there was a tremor to it as well. “Is that enough of a trial run, adventurous little songbird?”
She could have been angry at him. She could have been humiliated. Instead, Elise laughed ruefully, climbing off of the bed and straightening her clothes.
There was a decision in front of her, and she could feel that one way or another, her life was going to change.
“All right,” she said softly.
“All right?”
Elise raised her eyes to meet Nadim's squarely. She had to let him know that no matter how wealthy he was, no matter how much money he had to throw around and how powerful his family, he was the one who came to her.
“All right, I will allow you to impregnate me. I will bear your children, Sheikh Nadim ibn Fasad Al Attia.”
In that moment, his eyes lit up with such a victory that a sane woman would have been alarmed. She would have been frightened of what she had just agreed to, perhaps wonder if she could get herself out of it.
Instead, there was only an answering fire inside Elise that rose up to meet his, and she knew that whatever came next, in this moment, it was all she wanted.
Chapter Seven
“Are you afraid?”
“I think you would have made a poor choice of mothers if I was,” Elise retorted. It was better than telling the truth. Fear had never served her well, and sometimes, bravado could carry her throughout the day.
Outside the small plane's window, however, a torrent of water suddenly slapped the glass, and almost immediately after, a bright bolt of lightning illuminated the gloom. She couldn't help but flinch, and even if he was laughing at her, Nadim's hand tightened on hers.